Meditation: Turning It Off to Turn It On

If you are someone who is interested in centering yourself or are looking to find a little slice of peace, then perhaps learning to meditate is something that might fulfill that need for you. From my recent experiences, I have found that there are 2 (possibly more, my eyes are open to new experiences now) ways to meditate, and I am beginning to wonder if mastering the first practice could not set one up for an extreme heightened second practice.

To clarify, meditation is the art of completely clearing your mind of all distractions and going within yourself to seek peace, knowledge and balance. When you begin a meditation practice, you can start with a round of pranayama or deep breathing to center and ground the body. You can use meditation music or be with an instructor for guided meditation.

Clearing Meditation – Turn It Off

(Cleanse your space in whatever way suits you best – Incense, the vacuum, candles, do what you do)

Sit comfortably in a cross legged position on the floor or close to the earth, if that is uncomfortable for you, find a pillow to sit on. Settle in somewhere to which your limbs won’t fall asleep and distract you for the next 20 minutes or so. Begin a round of pranayama or deep breathing. Close your eyes and begin to breath deeply in through your nose for five counts and out through your nose for five. Again and extend to seven counts and out for seven. Continue to do this until your breath is completely even and you feel calm, then you can slowly let the focus of your breath go and begin to move the focus to your 3rd eye, or “Inside your head”. Notice what you are thinking about… Everything? The dog, laundry, kids, bills, this blog, your blog, your friends blog, Facebook, school, snow, and so on and forth. Now your job is to turn all of that off. You can either pick a color, say purple. Or a number like 11. Or if you are a visual person, maybe pick a scene of your favorite place. If you have done this before, or if you can’t stick with one thing, perhaps you can try a mantra. Here are a few:

“Jai Bagavon”

“Just Keep Swimming” <– I like that one

“Only Kindness Matters”

“Love, Glory, Peace, Kindness”

It doesn’t really matter what you say. Your mantra is your mantra, or motto or phrase. The point here, folks, is to pick one thing and stick with it, and that is the only thing you are allowed to think about for the next 10-15 minutes. So, you would do your pranayama, and slowly settle into your 3rd eye and begin concentrating on your focus piece, whatever you chose. If it is a phrase, you repeat it over and over at a rhythm that works for you. While you are doing this, you will notice every few seconds, a new thought comes into your mind. Recognize you had the thought, then press it away and bring back your focus. When you are done, slowly wake your body back up by wiggling first your fingers and toes then move through the rest of your body.

Here is a video on Pranayama (breath) and meditation:

Notice a severe difference in your overall attitude and mood. The clearing meditation is centering and grounding and will always bring you to where you  need to be.

Guided Meditation – Turning It On

There are many different forms of guided meditation, but I have found a few recently that have taken  me places I never knew existed. In essence, because of extensive training in clearing meditations and the ability to completely turn off the distractions, when I moved on to trying a guided meditation to Journey elsewhere I was able to do so with ease. The type of guided meditation I am speaking of is one in which you allow yourself to see inside your 3rd eye, or rather, you can see with your 3rd eye and look into other realms. There are guided meditations to speak with spirit guides, to find power animals, and even to find knowledge about your own life.

I found this excellent video on Youtube of a guided meditation that will take you elsewhere. To be able to journey correctly, in my opinion, you have to be able to turn it off before you can turn it on. If you can not turn off distraction, you can not see clearly. So, by using both forms of meditation, a deep and connected spiritual practice can grow transforming yourself into a well rounded spiritual you.